This post was sparked by recent events revolving around Wizards of the Coast (WotC), Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), and the Open Gaming License (OGL).
I personally believe you should always have a diverse set of options, even in hobbies. Let’s use Tabletop RPGs for example. I personally don’t care much for D&D and its system, I prefer Cypher system personally, or the many other unique systems that exist.
But many people only play D&D and nothing else, they only know it as a system, world, and playstyle. While the recent OGL problems mostly affected those that create content for D&D, build ontop of it, or borrow things from it, it impacted players indirectly. Because of this, many people are quiting D&D as a system, content creators are moving to other games, and system/setting designers are looking or building new systems.
Systems or settings that were not using the OGL, D&D, or anything related to it, did not have to do much, and benefitted greatly from WotC’s mistake. But many do rely on all of this and were caught off-guard, their very existence as companies would be threatened, and revenue streams.
This is why I believe people should always have a backup plan. Find similar systems, hardware, software, whatever. Learn enough to be comfortable or familiar with it, so that a switch would be easier. If Adobe tomorrow does something irreversible with Photoshop or Illustrator, have Gimp or Inkspcape ready. If WotC tries to do something crazy again, be ready to switch to Pathfinder, Cypher system, etc. Just have something ready.
This is a short post, as there isn’t much too it. Have a backup plan. That way, you alawys have a alternative and you aren’t stuck wondering what to do.s